METRON QA-1290, User & Service Manual, Page: 23 / 65

4. Blood Pressure Testing
This chapter describes step-by-step procedures for conducting QA-
1290 blood pressure testing.
Blood pressure simulation is the most complex of the QA-1290’s
functions. It simulates a number of different patient conditions, each
of which can be selected by the operator. These conditions include a
large number of systolic, diastolic and heart rate values, as well as
different types of irregular pulses.
Three aspects of the QA-1290 should be noted:
1. Many different types of blood pressure monitors were used dur-
ing QA-1290’s development in order to ensure its compatibility
with them. However, we have optimized QA-1290 for the widely
used Criticon Dinamap Blood Pressure Monitor. Thus, measured
values may differ somewhat from the selected values when test-
ing monitors other than the Criticon Dinamap monitor. However,
since QA-1290 is used for functional verification, and not cali-
bration, these differences should not be of significant concern.
2. QA-1290 simulations are suitable only for oscillometric blood
pressure measurements. In other words, it can be used only for
testing monitors that measure the pulse pressure variations to
find the systolic and diastolic values. QA-1290 is not intended
for use in testing monitors that acoustically measure systolic and
diastolic values.
3. During simulations the real cuff is disconnected, and an internal
pressure chamber is used. This is for two reasons. One is that this
makes it possible to optimize the QA-1290’s pressure generator,
because it then only needs to cope with a known volume (i.e.,
needed pulse volume for a given pulse varies with the cuff vol-
ume). The other reason is that the internal “cuff” is made of alu-
minum, which makes it rigid compared to real, rubber cuffs.
This, in tern, makes it possible to obtain better control over pulse
generation.
4.1 Measuring Cuff Volume
From Main Menu Screen 1 press BP Test (F5) . This advances you to
the BP Test Index Screen. Press Measure Cuff Volume (F7) . This
advances you to the screens controlling cuff volume measuring.
Equipment Code : ......................> F7
Leak Test .............................> F6
BP Test ...............................> F5
MORE SET UP
F1 F2 F3 F4
4-1